Allen Edward Schaarschmidt

Rev. Allen Edward Schaarschmidt, “Pastor Al”, 76, of Easton, PA and founder of the Blessed Hope Church of the Nazarene, Phillipsburg, NJ, went home into the loving embrace of our Savior, Jesus Christ, on July 31, 2024. He served Blessed Hope for forty-four years.

Allen was born December 28, 1947 in Phillipsburg, to the late Oscar and Mabel (Ritzer) Schaarschmidt.

From age 12 Allen played drums, professionally, with local bands such as The Dynamics, Inch and the Echoes, Jerry Todd and the 21st Century, Okie Duke and the Darts. For other groups he would sit in for absent drummers. His musical talents allowed him to open for well-known artists like the Beach Boys, Wayne Fontana and the Mind Benders and others.

Allen served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1965 to 1969. He attained the rank of Corporal upon his discharge. He was a Dog Handler in the 2nd Sentry Dog Platoon attached to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, 3rd Force Recon in ChuLai, Vietnam. Hector, his German Shepherd, saved his life several times. For battlefield wounds received twice (the second one near fatal), he received two Purple Heart medals.

After a month of being on the Navy’s hospital ship, the USS Repose (AH-16), he was flown to Andrews Air Force Base on a C-141 StarLifter. He was then transported to the Amputee Center at the Philadelphia Naval Hospital where surgeons, through an experiment, transplanted a Saphenous vein from his left leg into his injured right leg and constructed an artery from the vein.  This operation saved his leg.

After a few months in the Amputee Center Rehab, Allen was transferred to the USMC Barracks in Arlington, VA where he guarded the Pentagon and Main Navy.

In the summer of 1967, when Allen was allowed to travel home on weekends, he met his future wife, Elizabeth Niemoczynski, on a blind date. In early 1968, Allen was transferred to Camp Lejeune, NC. Later that year, the couple married, and Allen received an honorable discharge, completing his four years of service at Camp Lejeune. For his military service, in addition to his Purple Hearts, Allen received the following medals: Vietnam Service, Sharpshooter, Vietnam Campaign, Good Conduct and National Defense.

After his discharge, Allen returned to his drums. Music was the only employment that came to him steadily. He also worked as a cement truck driver, as a car salesman and for a men’s clothing store.

In 1970, after his first daughter Jessica was born, Allen hugged his wife to leave for his interview at Mushroom Transportation in Edison, NJ. He had applied to be a dispatcher but didn’t think he had a chance to be hired because he was a Vietnam vet. The question “Why” needs an answer. Vietnam vets were looked down on. He personally experienced it. That’s the reason for his doubts. But, when the Terminal Manager, Rocco Zulli, heard his story, he stood and became the first non-family member to say, “Welcome home, son.” They remained close friends till Rocco’s death in 2018. Allen went on to become a terminal manager for another trucking company.

In 1972 his second daughter Heather was born. After years of nightmares and pain, Allen knelt, held hands with his wife, and surrendered his life to Christ. His nightmares and pain disappeared.

In 1977 Allen enrolled in United Wesleyan College in Allentown, PA. He demoted himself from terminal manager to night dispatcher in order to attend day classes. He drove eighty-five miles, one way, from Allentown to Carteret, NJ to work full time. He received his four-year theological degree in three years and graduated Summa cum laude.

On Father’s Day, June 15, 1980, during his final semester at United Wesleyan, Allen, with his wife and two grade-school daughters, founded Church of the Blessed Hope, an independent, non-denominational church, in an abandoned dirt-floor, leaky-roof freight station that sat at 42 Mercer Street in Phillipsburg, New Jersey. Allen and his college buddies cleaned up the garbage-strewn property overgrown with poison ivy and sumac. The rent for the only large room and a restroom was $50 a week, which he didn’t have. He prayed for an offering of $50. The offerings never went below $55.

On Saturday nights, Allen faithfully drove to Koh-i-nor in Bloomsbury, NJ to borrow their van, load and set up fifty folding chairs for Sunday worship. Sunday night he’d return them.

Allen played drums for his church services, loved baseball and registered Blessed Hope in a church-baseball league. The Navy surgeons had told him that he'd never run again. Allen became one of the fastest runners, and an all-star, in that league.

In 1986, the congregation remodeled the building and joined the Nazarene denomination. Allen, with a committee, established the first Soup Kitchen in Warren County. Today the property includes a contemporary structure with paved parking, a lovely 120-seat sanctuary, a kitchen on each level, a food pantry, an office and five classrooms.

In 2020, the Warren County War Memorial Corp. awarded Allen the Chapel of the Four Chaplains – Legion of Honor. He was a former member of the Sarasota Academy of Christian Counseling, Kiwanis and Point Man Ministries International. Up until the time of his passing, Allen was an active member of Phillipsburg’s McWane Ductile Community Advisory Panel (MDCAP).

Allen’s yearly patriotic services included Independence Sunday, 9/11, Veterans’ Sunday and Memorial Sunday which included The National Anthem, wreath ceremony and his reading the names of local military members who died in all wars.

Always bi-vocational, in addition to Blessed Hope, and at different times, he was an outbound trucking dispatcher, a real estate agent with John Monaghan Realty, and worked as a chaplain at Country Meadows in Bethlehem, PA for eighteen years and Compassionate Care Hospice, Sussex, NJ for twenty years.

“The only words I want on my headstone are, I TRIED,” Allen said to his wife last year. His life scripture was Romans 12:1 “Dear brothers and sisters…give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you.”

Allen’s messages to his loved ones and his congregation:

To the living... My time has come to head home. I love you all. Don’t quit. Stay faithful. Continue to serve Jesus, till we meet again.

To Elizabeth...  If I go first - I’ll grab you in my arms, at Heaven’s gate, and carry you over the threshold of the mansion God prepared for us.

To my wonderful children... I wait for you. I can’t say enough good things about you. Thank you for your love.

To my grandchildren and great-grandchildren... I’ve been waiting for you. I can’t wait to grab you in my arms.

To loved ones who predeceased me, I see you all now.

Survivors include: his wife of fifty-six years and author of “Conversations of the Soul”, Elizabeth Helen Rose (Niemoczynski) Schaarschmidt; daughters Jessica Ann Faenza and Heather Lynn  Trapasso, both of Easton, PA;  grandson Allen Jesse Schaarschmidt; great-grandchildren Tristan Allen Schaarschmidt and Tessa Elaine Marquez; sister Nancy (Schaarschmidt) Byerlee and her husband Glenn; brother William Schaarschmidt and his wife Linda and many nieces and nephews.

Allen is predeceased by his biological father, Enrico Harry Tersigni, sister Joan (Tersigni) Frankenfield and her husband Parke; brother Dr. Patrick Tersigni, sister-in-law Diane (Baldwin) Schaarschmidt; brother-in-law Robert F. Thibault; brother-in-law Leon Niemoczynski.

Visitation will be held Saturday, August 17, 2024 from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm at Blessed Hope Church of the Nazarene, 42 Mercer St, Phillipsburg, NJ.

Visitation will also be held on Sunday, August 18, 2024 from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm at Phillipsburg Alliance Church, 255 Lincoln St, Phillipsburg, NJ followed by a memorial service at 3:00 pm in the church.

Those wishing to offer an expression of sympathy are asked to consider donations, in memory of Pastor Al, to Blessed Hope Church of the Nazarene, 42 Mercer St, Phillipsburg, NJ 08865.

Funeral arrangements are under the direction of the Noto-Wynkoop Funeral Home, 289 S. Main St, Phillipsburg, NJ. www.noto-wynkoop.com.

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